Gamasutra: The original Alan Wake is held up as an example in this generation of a game with a tremendous amount of pre-release hype but disappointing sales. You could probably call it a cult classic, all the same. With the original being a high-budget packaged game, it is something of a surprise that Xbox Live Arcade is seeing the series continued in the form of the digitally-distributed Alan Wake's American Nightmare.
Just shy of two weeks after launching its 'bold gambit' to save the multiplayer shooter FBC: Firebreak, Remedy says the game is still underperforming, to the point that the studio has issued a "profit warning" for 2025 and says it's going to eat a big loss on the whole thing.
Well…it’s their own fault thinking something like this would even be appealing
Remedy are known for their single player games, why waste time on something like this? I’d rather the manpower went on the Max Payne remakes or Control 2.
It's such a strange move from them.
I can sort of understand it when this happens to developers like Rocksteady and Bioware, where the company that owns them (and seemingly doesn't know anything about different genres of games) pushes them to shift to a multiplayer focus.
But Remedy is independently owned and run. They really should have known better. Pretty much the ONLY reason people play their games is for the narrative journey. A multiplayer shooter simply isn't likely to appeal to the same audience.
There is a narrative out there that seems to suggest that the big publishers are always the ones pushing for live service multiplayer and the small independent devs are the ones always fighting against them. What people fail to realize is that a successful live service game is enticing to both because it guarantees a revenue stream and helps the dev avoid laying off their staff between single player launches. That’s not to say that these types of games are a good idea, but it is an understandable move, even for a single player studio like Remedy.
It doesn’t help when anyone with a single player game gets scrutinized crazy. They need a masterpiece or their efforts are not rewarded.
Most companies will try a live a service gamble here and there because of the money that’s possible. But it’s a double edged sword and they got the wrong side of it.
The game is not bad, it's just that it doesn't feel rewarding, and the chaos artifacts in the game are annoying, there are ways to kill them, but it's often to hard to find, also the constant ramping up of the enemies numbers, when the objectives are being hamstrung by the chaos artifact with no way to kill them makes some runs plain out frustrating instead of challenging, not to mention the limited healing and ammunition stations...oh and who's idea was it to make my own ultimate dangerous to me? That should be the thing that saves you, not kill you lol.
Maybe me and my friends are playing it wrong.
Oddly enough that's how i feel playing just about every remedy game, it's like they nail everything but the difficulty balance, and it's full of random difficulty spikes all over the place and just makes it not very fun to play unless i drop the difficulty, which then just loses all challenge. It's always just a choice between frustrating or boring, but story, world, visuals, etc carry the game so i usually stick with it. But with a mp game where story just isnt there, i knew immediately it was not gonna be my thing
Isarai, I agree,
The thing is, I love and beat almost all of their other games.
The Alan Wake series and Control, are excellent games, I'm still working on Alan Wake 2 only because I'm not to fond of the whole detective board thing, takes me out of it sometimes.
But FB is just outta control with its difficulty, the normal levels are not that hard, it's just that nothing seems to really power you up to get ready for the higher difficulty levels, you always feel underpowered in a bad way. They needed to revamp not only the way you level up, but the actual benefits of the perks.
I mean you try to milk the universe with a live service game no one wanted... that'll do it
Remedy has outlined its major goals for the Max Payne remakes, stating that it intends to capture commercial and critical success.
I'm not much of a Remedy gamer beyond Alan Wake, but I can't say I've ever heard anyone complain about the quality of the product, whether we like the game or not.
Um, I’d think that should go without saying… but glad they’re committed to making the quality excellent as opposed to, uh, not.
I don’t think Remedy had anything to do with that. I get you’re referring to a publisher, but you wouldn’t think a developer would be reassuring people about their game when a different developer made a game that dropped the ball that’s under the same publishing umbrella.
Like, why would From Soft have to assure us that they’re game will be be striving for excellence if Namco Bandai is publishing and they’re referring to something like Unknown 9: Awakening?
This is just a weird statement no matter how you spin it, but also good to know.
Well rockstar is paying the bills so they have to project confidence so it isn't cancelled.
What I'm wondering is who is going to voice Max since the og actor died or they are using the old VO like MGS3Remake.
Rockstar has always had a great relationship with remedy this isn't some new fly by night partnership they have worked together for 20 plus years now
Max payne 2 was the last time they worked with rockstar in 2003. And it bombed.
Rockstar asked remedy to check out Max Payne 3 for notes but were not really involved.
So having worked on a project 20 years ago doesn't mean they have been working together for 20 plus years.
Considering some new releases that's good to hear. It is better than aiming for diversity and inclusion.
Remedy will self-publish Control 2 as part of a new "strategic cooperation agreement" with Annapurna. A press release accompanying the announcement says Annapurna will provide half of Control 2's development budget, and in return gains the rights to adapt Control and Alan Wake for film and television.
This isn't about the store. Epic published the game on all platforms. They want to self publish because they couldn't recoup Alan Wake 2's budget.
...because Epic chose to restrict its PC release to the Epic store and completely restrict it's physical release until later this year.
It’s connected, though. They couldn’t recoup the costs because Epic restricted the places and formats where the game could be released, literally removing the biggest PC distribution channels from the equation. And they also sold the game cheaper than a traditional full release, solely to support their statements at the launch of the Epic Games Store that PC games would be cheaper if it weren’t for Steam.
Dang, nice ... Alan Wake II is an amazing game
Can't wait for Control 2 and Max Payne Remakes
Not sure why your getting down voted because you found Alan Wake 2 amazing. I'm in the same boat as you. Can't wait for Control 2 & the Max Payne remakes. Max Payne 1 & 2 were some of my favorite pc games from my early teens lol.
Coz N4G logic.
You cant praise a game if its got no physical release, not releasing on PS etc
